Well one thing: where is the AOLserver log file? svc isn't going to have a log file, unless you set one up, and you need to run AOLserver with -ft to get that to work. An error need to show up somewhere. Even if the -b switch was incorrect AOLserver would still start up just fine, it just wouldn't listen.

Another thing: use -k to kill AOLserver unless you know -t works. If you want it to stop, do a -k and then a -d. You can also test by starting with a -o (once). Either the AOLserver error log or readproctitle will have an error for a restart, unless you have discovered a bug in nsmain. Don't know what would happen then.

I would report it to the AOLserver list, maybe someone else has seen similar behavior.

One more thing: if you are using a high port, why not login as nsadmin and start it up without sudo (./run, and maybe with -ft). Just hoping to expose an error somehow.

Well the error has to be in nsmain I think, since errors are not written to the error log until after all command line params are written and until the config file is read without error. I guess -b does mean bizarre. You could also do a little testing with the -B switch to see what happens. I think it takes the path to a file containing the ip:ports one per line.